Now counting the two strongholds of Xuzhou and Qingzhou, Wei Shuo has a total of more than 400,000 people, and according to the militia ratio of 40 to 1, he can only recruit 10,000 professional soldiers at most. Considering that it is wartime now, in addition to Qing and Xu Erzhou, and Liaodong is a place of tension, Wei Shuo recruited a total of twelve professional soldiers.

In view of the tense war in Liaodong, the cavalry of the five compartments were all stationed on the front line of Liaodong to suppress the Hu people in various parts of Liaodong; The arrangement of the five-compartment infantry is that Laoshan is stationed in one box, Xuzhou is stationed in two compartments, and Liaodong is stationed in two compartments; The two-compartment sailors are stationed in Laoshan and Liaodong.

In addition to the 36,000 professional soldiers in these twelve compartments, Wei Shuo had 50,000 local garrison soldiers, and according to the regulations, any man under his rule who had reached the age of 15 and was under the age of 40 must bring his own bows, arrows, and weapons to participate in military training in the winter and summer seasons of each year, and these militiamen could be selected as government soldiers once they passed the examination.

The young men who are selected as government soldiers will receive more rigorous military training, but they will not need to bring their own weapons and equipment, and everything will be distributed by the government. There are years of service and age limits for government soldiers, and those who have served for five years or are over 40 years old must retire and go home.

Although the government soldiers did not have a salary, the service members could enjoy a certain amount of tax reduction, and the family members who served in the government soldiers could enjoy the benefits of half of the tax reduction every year, which was also the main reason why the people under Wei Shuo's rule actively participated in the selection of government soldiers.

The common people don't understand any big truths, and they can only see the immediate benefits. They only know that the government soldiers are garrison troops, and generally only undertake local defense tasks, so they don't have to worry about going to the front line to fight, and have the opportunity to enjoy tax exemption, where can they find such a good thing?

Under Wei Shuo's rule, the government soldiers belonged to the local garrison force, and generally did not undertake complex battles, but when it came to a critical moment, the government soldiers should also be on board. At this time, because the government soldiers did not have a salary in their daily lives, once they were called up to participate in the war, after the war, according to the evaluation, the participants would receive rich material and spiritual rewards, and those who performed well could be directly selected into the Xiang army or promoted.

As a professional soldier, the Xiang army is selected from the outstanding government soldiers, the Xiang army is 20,000 yuan per month, can buy two stones of food, and the family will also enjoy the treatment of full tax exemption, all kinds of benefits plus the income can easily make a family of five live a happy and well-off life in ancient times.

There are also years of service and age restrictions, each soldier must be between the ages of 20 and 35, and the maximum length of service must not exceed five years, unless you can be promoted from a soldier to an officer, you can extend your service in the army.

At the same time, in order to dispel the worries of the soldiers under his command, Wei Shuo stipulated that regardless of the militia, government soldiers, and van soldiers, all those who died in battle, the immediate family members could enjoy a series of generous benefits such as full tax exemption, free school enrollment for their children, and government support for orphans and widows, and at the same time, the immediate family members could receive a pension of 100,000 yuan per year.

It was Wei Shuo's series of preferential military policies, coupled with the implementation of the uniform field system and the release of slaves, that greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the people under his rule to join the army.

After several months of adjustment, Wei Shuo finally completed the integration of the military forces under his rule. It was through this integration that he found out how chaotic the weapons and equipment under his command were, except for the spear, longbow, and paper armor that were unified, most of the other armor and weapons came from the seizures.

Among them, there were both Goguryeo and Xiongnu, as well as a small number of Jin army-standard weapons. Before, Wei Shuo had no source of steel, and he couldn't do it even if he wanted to unify the equipment.

Now, with the steel mill beginning to produce steel, Wei Shuo finally put the army's refitting on the agenda, but given that the current output of the steel workshop is not enough to support the replacement of the entire army with new equipment, he has to focus on the equipment replacement of the Modao team and the cavalry unit.

For cavalry equipment, Wei Shuo is ready to abandon the previous use of the ring head knife, the ring head knife is certainly the most advanced and lethal close range cold weapon in the Han Dynasty, but considering that it is a straight-edged long knife, if used as cavalry equipment, it is very unfavorable for cavalry slashing in wartime.

Wei Shuo combined some saber pictures seen in modern times, and asked the craftsmen to use steel filling as a material to create a new type of saber for the cavalry. Compared with the ring head knife, the new saber has a shorter blade, about 70 centimeters long, and the biggest difference between the two is that the new saber blade has a perfect arc.

And after consulting a large number of cavalry soldiers, the new saber has the characteristics of a wide back and a thin blade, and the blade is relatively heavy, which is conducive to increasing the strength of the chop. Moreover, the new saber has smooth lines, and the handle is generally slightly bent in the direction of the blade, so that the curved handle is more conducive to the rider's control and is not easy to get out of the hand.

What's more, given that the quality of the steel filling is much better than that of the previous steel, the new saber blade is thinner and lighter than the ring head. The cavalry mainly relies on the strong impact force formed by the speed of the horse to drive the saber to complete tactical actions such as chopping, and the lighter and thinner saber is more conducive to cavalry slashing.

After the cavalry generals such as Sumaru, Nengchen, and Wang Xiang got some of the new sabers, they were all so excited that they couldn't wait to ride their horses and try them out.

After running a few laps on the school field, several people happily came to Wei Shuo and admired the new saber, "Lord, I didn't expect the new saber to be so good!" With the help of this sword, the last general and others will be more confident to lead the cavalry to defeat all enemies! ”

Seeing that the new saber was liked by the cavalry generals, Wei Shuo was also very happy, out of habit, he still did not forget to tell everyone, "Don't be careless, the new saber is just a piece of equipment after all, and it can really improve the combat effectiveness of your cavalry, and you have to wait for your efforts on the training ground!" ”

"Don't worry, my lord, I won't dare to relax my training for a moment! The new saber will only give me wings, and it will never make me wait to lower my training requirements. It's just that...... Dare to ask the lord, how long will it take for the new saber to equip the whole army? Nengchen, who had been itching for a long time, asked with a salivating face

Wei Shuo shook his head and said with a wry smile: "I'm afraid that the cavalry won't be able to use the new sabre in a short period of time, and the steelmaking workshop will not be fully put into operation until at least May, and the output will not increase until the second half of the year." Only then will the Soldier Workshop produce a steady stream of sabers, and you will have to wait until the second half of this year at the earliest to equip yourself with the new sabers. ”

"Doesn't that mean that you can't catch up with the Shile cavalry this time?" Speedu asked with some regret.

The most important task in Liaodong this year is to assist Wang Jun, strive to help Wang Jun hold Youzhou, and delay Shile's occupation of Youzhou.

To aid Youzhou, it is inevitable to confront Shi Le's subordinates. This is the strongest enemy faced by the Wei army since its establishment, and Speedaru and the others naturally want to meet the enemy with the strongest attitude, but the new saber cannot catch up with this battle.

"It depends on Shi Le's attack on Youzhou, if the war happens after September, you may have the opportunity to use a new style of sabre against the enemy, but once Shi Le launches an attack in advance, I'm afraid you will have to go to Youzhou with a ring head knife." Although Wei Shuo also wanted to equip the cavalry with new sabers as soon as possible, he was helpless if the steel output could not rise.

"Alas! What a pity! "In the face of the delay in equipping cavalry with new swords, the cavalry generals were a little unhappy

Although the new sabers cannot be equipped on a large scale for the time being, Wei Shuo's other weapon carefully crafted, the Mo knife, is being hoarded in the military workshop with an average output of 20 knives per day, and a thousand Mo knife fighters can be formed in two months, and at the same time, the selection of Mo knife players has been put on the agenda by Wei Shuo early.

In view of the fact that the Mo knife weighs about 20 catties and is about seven feet long, the selected Mo knife hands are all tall and powerful. And the weak one, not to mention whether he can carry the Mo knife, even if he can hold it, he will not be able to run as he wishes.

In order to select a suitable Mo swordsman, Wei Shuo also targeted many Hu tribes in Liaodi. Now, with the implementation of the policy of changing the land and returning to the river in Liaodong, about 10,000 Hu people have taken the initiative to accept the naturalization of the Han people.